Return of the Facebook campaign

March 5, 2009

Remember back in the day before the interwebs, when campaigns were campaigns? If you wanted voters to see your ad, you actually had to buy TV time. If you wanted people to read your thoughts, you had to write a letter (a letter! with a stamp!) to the editor and hope they actually published it.

And if you were running a campaign, you would give a phone call to the local press to try to push your point across.

And then here were two comments by people on different sides of the Omaha Mayor campaign: Trenton Magid, President of the Coldwell Banker Commercial World Group and friend, fundraiser, co-worker and a top supporter of Councilman Jim Vokal; and Brinker Harding, campaign manager for Hal Daub. See the exchange here.

What really caught our attention here was (what we perceived as) the attack by Harding on this issue. We’ve seen the Daub supporters go out of their way to attack Vokal on this point. And Hal Daub mentioned it, sort of offhandedly in an interview with KPTM (which no one saw). But this was the first time we saw Camp Daub really come out publically on this issue.

So we asked Brinker Harding what was behind the comment.

Brinker said that he and Magid have known each other a long time — both being in the real estate biz together (though at different companies). He said, “We throw jokes back and forth. I saw his post and thought I’d have a little fun with him.”

Well…except, in Facebook protocol, he should then have sent Magid a private message or whatever. Instead, it went to Voorhees and 805 (and counting) of his closest Friends (and now, you).

Harding also noted that he didn’t see Magid’s follow-up response and declined our request to comment any further about it.

So here is what we propose: Let’s just do it all on the Series of Tubes. Let’s have the first Mayoral debate, via IM, on Facebook.

Who you ask? Oh, like you never glanced at Dr. John’s adult novelty emporium on 72nd and Pacific in Omaha, or just off the interstate in Lincoln? Or that you’ve never been up aisle four where the sell all the colored…uh…well, anyway… he has some stores that sell “adult” items.

And if you’ve watched the news in the last few years you know that Dr. John (we’re not sure whether he has an M.D. or a Ph.D) is really John Haltom. He has been arrested several times on obscenity charges, mainly for the videos he sells at his stores. And as he has said in the past, arrests is good for bidness!

But anyone who has tried Googling the White House knows that you can’t swing a dead cat on the intertubes without being offered porn of some type. Is there anyone really going to Dr. Johns to purchase video tapes? Do they still sell video tapes? Anywhere?

So what is a guy like Dr. John to do if he can’t get the pub by being arrested? Run for City Council!

According to the LJS, he says that he will, “work to protect people’s rights, improve snow removal, push the state to allow more billboard advertising along the interstate, promote the return of $8 million in a special assessment fund to taxpayers and work to reduce taxes.“

So you see folks, Dr. John is all about the snow removal.

That, and marital aids. (We now open the floor to insert your joke here!)

***

Senator Ben Nelson has been getting the wrath of the liberals of late. Uber-lib blogger Chris Bowers of Open Left has declared that Nellie and his cohort of “Moderate” Democrats are now “The Opposition“.

Of course this stems from Nelson’s sticking his foot into the stimulus package to get it dropped from 900 gazillion to 899 gazillion. And now Nelson is saying that the President’s budget is too high as well.

All this sort of makes us sigh.

The lefties are up in arms at someone like Nelson, but he is actually perfect for the President. The Prez and Reid and Pelosi propose some ridiculous plan, then conservative Benator jumps in and says “hold on there!” Everyone steps back, let’s Nelson chip off a few porksicles from the whole process, and then the Libs pretend to grumble about ALL that they’ve given away.

Nelson looks like a hero — and will probably get reelected for as long as he wants — while the Libs’ proposal has 99-100% of what they wanted in the first place.

That’s some racket they’ve got going there.

And in the mean time, Nelson gets to stand next to Rush Limbaugh on the Lib bloggers Most Hated list.

35 comments

SS, that has been the MO of Congress from time immemorium. The real reason the Dems are pissed at the Republicans is that they won’t go along with business as usual. They couldn’t even get the moderates in the House to roll over and play dead. So Nelson will probably try to parlay being hated by the Left into a reason for Nebraskans to be proud of him, but when our economy is still in the tank in 2012, being on some Lefty Enemies’ List won’t be enough and Bennie will retire to his “farmland.”

An attack? Oh please. An attack is not addressing an issue that Vokal himself raised in the FIRST place! What, should everyone just ignore the fact that Vokal accepted a check from them the day before he announced his candidacy, but then two months later comes out all high and mighty saying he won’t accept any money from them during his candidacy for mayor? That’s ridiculous.

So, by Brinker suggesting an issue that was being discussed in the media is an attack? So anytime anyone asks about an issue or position that Jim Vokal has it’s an attack.

By the way, why isn’t it an attack when Jim Vokal calls Hal Daub “dishonest”? Or, why isn’t it an attack when Vokal calls Jim Suttle “irresponsible”? At least Daub and Suttle are proposing things (granted, some of Suttle’s are a little out there) to move Omaha forward.

All Jim Vokal is doing is sitting in his bunker shooting down any ideas from the other candidates. That’s Vokal’s “new” leadership?

Well Vokal did call Hal dishonest and Vokal did call Suttle irresponsible, but I guess it’s more noteworthy to say Harding is “attacking” Vokal because he suggests to Vorhees to talk about an issue already being talked about in the newspaper, on tv and on radio?

Do you not realize how transparent you have become SS? You do a whole post that you claim is about how UNUSUAL it is for campaigns to be using Facebook, when it’s really just another way for you to get your own ATTACK in on the Hal Daub campaign.

This post isn’t about Brinker Harding using Facebook at all. It’s just to try and say he’s “attacking” Jim Vokal. Please.

SS- I think you need a life line. Now you say that Harding is “attacking” Jim Vokal by having “a little” fun with Trenton Magid. It seems to me that Harding has a sense humor (something missing in politics) and you don’t.

ss- when you concockted this story…thought about it…and then posted it, it was all about Harding’s “attack”. Now almost two hours after posting (and the previous mentioned “thought” time) you say that Magid’ accusation of collusion IS an attack. WHy wasn’t that part of the origianl post?

As the only person reading this who got to the bottom of the comments section and is not a Daub/Vokal/Suttle staffer, let me field this one, SS.

The post is worthy because it is highlighting the fact that all of you have gone from a bickering gaggle of “anonymous” Leavenworth street commenters to actually using real names in public forums on Facebook. Frankly, I find it to be a refreshingly open way to do all this “debating,” and I’m glad SS brought it to my attention. Thanks Sweeper.

So, to take the “high road” in a campaign you need to just let your opponent say any old thing they like to make themselves look better, even if they’re totally playing with the facts? It’s an “attack” if you call them on it? Or you’re taking the “low road” if you call them on it? But you’re taking the “high road” if you just ignore it?

Oh yeah, now THAT is some smart politicking — not! Sheesh. Give me a break.

Facebook users such as “friends” of mine like Jason Whitlock of the K C Star, Tom Becka of KFAB, George Stephenopolis of ABC, Scott Simon of NPR, Robert Nelson of the OWH and more all go to the site for inspiration and to market their craft.Face it, the users of Facebook and blogger sites like this one all have readers and writers with much to add and viewpoints worthy of consideration.Asking for help on facebook for people with real jobs in the media is a fact of life.

The fact is that Jim Vokal did call a press conference 2 weeks ago, out of the blue, to declaring that he would not accept police or fire union money in his campaign. No one asked him to do that. And frankly he could have had a more dramatic press conference by bringing the checks and ripping them up.

The problem, though, is that he does have, in his campaign account right now, two checks totaling $5,000 from the firefighters, making them his 2nd biggest contributor among businesses. This money is financing his campaign right now, and that’s why people are calling it ‘tainted.’

The problem is that Jim Vokal has no problem being a hypocrite, if it doesn’t get him in trouble.

To anon 3:05. If Professor Kleeb is doing anything, it is more than Iron Mike has done. Now Iron Mike and Adrian are both protecting the large corporate farm subsidies. I could say Iron Mike is protecting his child, but he never had a farm bill, other than the one he threw on his desk as he turned out the lights. Of course, he claimed it was Bush’s farm bill, not his. Two years later he doesn’t vote for the AG because he has always been a patsy of the Clinton administration and the party. Who was, and still is your puppet master, Sen Nohands?